Frank Cepollina
Ask inventor and engineer Frank J. “Cepi” Cepollina ’59 about his groundbreaking work that led to repairing satellites in outer space and he’ll tell you it started with fixing tractors on his grandfather’s farm in Alameda.
“I would tear them apart to figure out how they worked, what was broken, and some practical way of keeping the tractor running,” says Cepollina.
That quizzical nature led him to enroll at Santa Clara University, the first son in his family to attend college.
“It formed within me a philosophy that says nothing is impossible if you try hard enough,” he says of his grueling studies at SCU, where he majored in mechanical engineering.
By Cepollina’s senior year, the Space Race with the Soviet Union had already begun. So when SCU’s chair of mechanical engineering arranged for him to attend a preview of “the state of rocketry” at nearby Lockheed Martin, an exciting new world opened up.
His introduction to futuristic technology sent Cepollina to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where he pioneered the concept of in-orbit satellite servicing, first by fixing the revolutionary Hubble Space Telescope. For his achievements, Cepollina was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2003.
Meanwhile, his love of Santa Clara inspired his son, Joseph Cepollina ’95 (married to Alyson Cepollina ’94), to become a Bronco.
In 1999, the senior Cepollina established the Frank Cepollina Family Endowed Scholarship for undergraduate engineering students without the financial means to access SCU.
This year, he expanded his commitment with a generous bequest intention from his estate that will increase affordability and accessibility to engineering students.
“The essence of what SCU brought to me was the spirit of innovation,” says Cepollina, a new member of the University’s Thomas I. Bergin Legacy Society. “We must focus on maintaining within students that spirit to come up with solutions that have never been thought of before.”
Just like Frank Cepollina, you too can support innovation. Learn more about his story. Or, contact the Office of Planned Giving at 408-554-2108 or giftplanning@scu.edu to learn how a planned gift can help create educational opportunities at SCU.